The 75th edition of Africa’s Greatest Canoe Marathon got underway on Thursday at Bishopstowe Hall in Pietermaritzburg, with Birkett gunning for a record 16th winner’s medal.

The 34-year-old and his race partner, Matthew Fenn, secured victory on day one of the three-day 120km race, which follows the Msunduzi and Mgeni rivers, in a time of 1:53:31 – ahead of second-placed duo Sbonelo Khwela and Msawenkosi Mtolo.

“The record that people often try to remind me of— I’m not trying to put any thought into that. We have a task at hand now, and that is to race the Dusi,” Birkett told SABC Sport.

“There are a lot of variables and a lot of decisions to make along the way. It’s not a plain sailing race where it’s your fitness and you’ve got to get from A to B.”

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The four-time World Marathon champion says his partnership with Fenn began when he first moved to East London, when Matthew was a young surfski paddler and did not really race on rivers until Birkett encouraged him to take on the Dusi.

The 15-time Dusi champion also shared insight into his itinerary for the remaining two days, with their day set to start way before the crack of dawn.

“Tomorrow morning, we start at 06:00am and race until 09:00am from Dusi bridge down to the Inanda dam, which means we will probably wake up at 03:20am to get to the start about an hour before.

“At the end of each day of racing, I go back in the valley, have a look at what the water is doing and maybe paddle a section. On Saturday morning we will probably go further down the dam,” he concluded.

VINA MAPHOSA

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